Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-09-11
PEN-PICTURES
GRAPHICALLY DRAWN AT THE WHITE
SULPHUR By H. J. w.D.
The Young Married Lady Who Flirts-
The Old Maid-shs Who Paints
The Little Widow and
Two Couples.

The parlor is full. Everybody has
had supper and everybody IS IN good
humor. Everybody is talking, too
talking airy badinage. In the air isthe
| frou.frou Of silks, the melange OF many
perfumes, and the peculiar slightly
metallic sound mixture OF many human
voices that, like Tennyson's brook, go
on forever. The musicians outside,
who played the Cujus Amman to the
Sunset, now play the Nanon Waltz to
the gas. The chandeliers blaze
and the diamonds sparkle. The
women are dressed in their best,
are looking their best, and feel at their
best. In the corner q bouquet OF buds
impulsiyely prattle. Their white
dresses come up close to their fresh
faces. because the shoulders will make
a better impression iacOgnito for some
wears yet. The old ladies, In black
silk and lace caps, grouped in circle
near by, are agreeing that the bellies
face lacks expression; that the dia-
monds of Mrs. Checqueblanche are
not in good taste that the hOmely girl
has a good heart and in general taking
from the portion Of the fortunate and
adding to the store Of the unfortunate
among their sex with that judicial in
dustry and desire to even matters which
is their prescribed and eyer-fulilled
sphere in the social plan.
THE YOUNG WIFE WHO FLIRTs.
Our handsome Young Married Lady
has gone to flirting at last. She has
managed to withhold for three self
denying days. Perhaps she does it
now TO prove that she is more interest
ing than her husbands newspaper or
prettier than his cigar. Perhaps she
fiirts for the same reason that the oriOle
is singing in the twilight elm and the
moon flower is unfolding on the lat
tice-because it is her nature TO. 1t IS
getting very desperate now as they sit
by themselves IN the corner. They
have been together all day at the
lawn-tennis play this morning; on
the drive and in the walk this after
noon. He is a handsome man, an
American apparently, but swarthy rs a
Spaniard, and he knows his world as
well as she knows hers. He offsets
well her blonde fairness. The word or
two that you catch, from duty not de-
sire, shows that they are on the same
old plane, Platonica; the ETHEREAL
union of soul and soul; the angels
alone can climb Jacobs ladder; the
strangeness of destiny; humanity help
less IN the hands Of fate, and the rest
Of the platonic platitudes Plato will
have much to answer for when ne con-
fronts the Zeus whom he denied. For
even now as they talk there is some
thing hidden in the chasie litany they
are reading, for the Madonna eyes fail,
and faint rose-tint, as Of ruby flame
hidden in pale porcelain, warns for
e moment her cheek. She is playing
with fire. but the flame is fascinating.
lie is stirring the Goals, and the tluge
of gray at ms temples tells that his IS
"A practiccd hand. 1t was born Of day
and VIII end in IA day, perhaps. The
home may be n trihe more humdrum
and the husband more commonplace
hereafter. and she will not be any hap
pier for it all. 1t seems scarcely fair
that in all the variations of the social
| game the woman should ever have all
to lose and the count never be forty
| ALL" In year or two she Will be say
ing chat life is short, and life never is
short save TO the eyes of tho discon-
tented. A flower fell from her dress
Just then, and as he stopped to pick 1t
up his other hand rested on her knee.
Clearly he does not know his role and
the Goals will be dullred before tine
evening IS over.
THE Old MAID HOOKS HIM.
The Old Maid has hooked fish. lie
is tall and somewhat foolish-looking,
with his gray chin whiskers and his
sentimental air. From his tonsOrial
completeness and the flower which
looks strangely in his coat lapel he has
surely paid the last cent due on his
wifes monument, and feels free to go
galliyanting i'll the rose gardens once
again. She is looking very well herself
this evening. The white dress helps
out her thinness, and il she is too angu-
lar in some places and not angular
enough in others she is quite sure that
he will never know the difference.
You would scarcely believe, as you
look at her bright face and high color,
n shade too high on the right side, and
the giddy, mischievous gayety of her
ossifiod girlhOod, that she Is the same
severe and somewhat acetic lady who
came in late to breakfast this morning,
and. as she dallied with the yolk OF a
hard boiled egg and a fragment Of
toast and some tea, looked disap-
pointed and soured over the two little
fans Of fine wrinkles that converge at
the outer corners of her eyes. Per
haps the indelible imprint OF their feet
has won for the crows their unpOpu-
larity, for no farmer could hate their
tracks rs she does. She Is tinkllng
like q music-bOx this evening, how
ever, and her aunt and uncle are
helping her, for the four are play
ing "muggins." Sue turns over
her last card slowly, with grel
show of feminine fear, and smiles
across at the surviving partner with
prodigiOus archness each time 1t turns,
and when she blows upon it breathcs
such d9inty breath of cardamon seed
that it is wonder that the jack OF
spades on its face does not wonder
where it came from aud look about him
for more. And now, her own cards
gone, she plays her invisible ones, and
takes a deep interest in the widower's
success. She cautions him with great
archness how to play, and when he
slips up and is Muggins he looks
as If he was a dead-sure "Muggins &"
in almost any gaIne-she does not join
in the general hilarity, but looks
at him with little surprise and little
regret and an enormous amount OF
sympathy that is quite like that of a
tender little child. Success attend
thee, Old Girl You have labored
long and patiently at the oar, and it is
not fair that so much energy and hope
should wither like winter apple when
so many of the round and rosy ones
that have been plucked made the matri
monial dumping bitter to the taste.
Gather thy Muggins to thy barren
bosom and blow cardamon at him all
the way down the shining river, and
thine shall be the kingdom and the
glory forever--a man.
SPIRIT OF COSMETIC YOUTH.
Yonder in the magniticence OF pre-